Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Review:
Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
What a fantastic novel! The dual setting of 1928 and present day in a small town in Wisconsin brings depth to the mysteries surrounding Bonaventure Circus. It was like having two beautifully-crafted stories in one book.
The prose is incredible. I was immediately fascinated with Pippa and Chandler’s life. Though living in different times, both are captivated with life at the circus: Pippa, who was looking for her birth parents, and Chandler, who was trying to understand the circus’ history as part of her restoration project of the train depot. They are alike in so many ways. Pippa, who was born with a deformed leg and adopted by the circus’ owners, seeks to belong. She was never close to her adoptive parents, particularly to her father, and she felt like she was only a possession and replacement of something that her parents couldn’t have: a child of their own. Chandler, for her part, seeks to prove herself that she is more than capable of becoming a single mother despite her past mistakes. She took this restoration project to show that she can be successful at her job and raise her kid alone while battling an autoimmune disease.
Both Pippa and Chandler seek these things in Bonaventure Circus. Through their search, they stumble into the story of “The Watchman”, a serial killer preying on women. Through their search, the author explored the connection of having two time frames. The complexity was more than I expected, but it added more depth to the stories of Pippa, Chandler, the people around them and Bonaventure Circus.
What I also love about this novel are the interesting supporting characters. I was engrossed with the lives of the circus people in the 1920s, how they are sadly viewed as freaks because of their mere deformities and abnormalities. The touch of romance, despite subtle, added spice to the novel and I was hooked. Elephant trainer Jake Chapman and plumber Hank Titus are hotties, ladies and gentlemen. (I imagined them as Turkish actor Can Yaman. I mean, just look at him here).
Of course, no novel is perfect. I’ve had issues, but it didn’t affect my overall view of this novel. The “hauntings” were not as scary as I expected that I could barely categorize it as a “horror/paranormal” novel. In my interpretation, I think the hauntings of the circus is not the ghosts per se but the ghosts of the past, the ghost of the circus’ history, the ghost of people’s secrets in the circus. Pippa and Chandler can also be overbearing and naive at times, but I understood where they are coming from. And while I grew exhausted with Chandler’s pompous actions, I still got over it.
I love this book so much, I bought my own copy after experiencing problems with my ARC, haha!
Plot:
1928
The Bonaventure Circus is a refuge for many, but Pippa Ripley was rejected from its inner circle as a baby. When she receives mysterious messages from someone called the “Watchman,” she is determined to find him and the connection to her birth. As Pippa’s search leads her to a man seeking justice for his murdered sister and evidence that a serial killer has been haunting the circus train, she must decide if uncovering her roots is worth putting herself directly in the path of the killer.
Present Day
The old circus train depot will either be torn down or preserved for historical importance, and its future rests on real estate project manager Chandler Faulk’s shoulders. As she dives deep into the depot’s history, she’s also balancing a newly diagnosed autoimmune disease and the pressures of single motherhood. When she discovers clues to the unsolved murders of the past, Chandler is pulled into a story far darker and more haunting than even an abandoned train depot could portend.
kristelreads.wordpress.com 